Thin client giant Wyse Technology last week announced its purchase of Montreal-based mobile device management vendor Trellia Networks in a deal that the company said will extend its vision of “MDM made easy.”
“We see a world where consumer smartphones and tablets are a big issue for [enterprise IT,]” said Rami Karam, vice president of marketing at Trellia. “We help you manage the challenge.”
The company is rooted in more traditional mobile device management for laptops, and just broke into the nascent but red-hot MDM market at the beginning of this year.
It was that new product line and focus that brought it broader attention, and eventually led to its purchase by Wyse in what Karam describes as Wyse’ push towards a bigger goal.
“Their view of the world is ‘mobile infrastructure management,’” Karam said, bringing together management of mobile devices, apps, security and content through a single management console.
“That’s when we decided to get married,” Karam said of the relationship. “I think it’s an attainable solution. It’s a broad vision, but Trellia brings a lot to the table. You’ll see the products come together, have a consistent look and feel, and after that, it’s just growing the functionality and the footprint. It’s going to happen quickly.”
Channel integration is another thing that’s going to happen quickly, in Karam’s estimation. With the deal announced and finalized last week, the company has already been meeting with Wyse’s channel leadership about how to best get the word out about Trellia’s products to the broader worldwide Wyse partner community.
“We expect that in the next two to three weeks, we’re start to see a lot of momentum from those conversations,” he said.
Trellia has been building its own channel as well, working with resellers and managed service providers in Canada, the U.S., the UK and parts of Europe, Karam reported. Key among those on the home front is a major deal with Rogers Communications that has seen Trellia become an on-the-bill partner for the mobile telecom giant. Karam said Trellia, under Wyse, will be looking to replicate the Rogers partnership globally, but remains open to working with other carriers in Canada as well.
Far from cutting back post-merger, Karam said he expects Trellia’s Montreal headquarters to grow as it morphs into a mobile centre of excellence for Trellia. In fact, he said, there are plans in place to grow the company’s Montreal-based development team “in the next two to four weeks.”
In the long run, the Trellia name will be downplayed and the Wyse brand will take over, which will bring the company’s products to a more global audience.
“It’s not every day a little company out of Montreal is acquired by a big player from San Jose,” Karam said.
